Oklahoma Reader Fall 2018 V 54 Issue 2 by Oklahoma Reader

ISSN 2640-1649 (online) ISSN 0030-1833 (print) VOLUME NO. 54 // ISSUE NO. 2 // FALL 2018

THE OKLAHOMA READER YOUR LITERACY JOURNEY STARTS TODAY

A PUBLICATION OF THE OKLAHOMA LITERACY ASSOCIATION

Finding Inspiration through reading and writing

Recommended: Books that Challenge, Delight, and Inspire

Contents

Fall 2018: Poetic Perspectives, page 4

3 Editor's Expressions

Children's Book Reviews

Young Adult Book Review

Zoom with the Authors

Policy and Advocacy

Tech Talk

Research Summary

Letter from the OKLA President

52 .

OKLA Literacy Association

Illuminating the Past to Inform today's Path's: Historical Fiction Novels in Verse, page 8 Suzii Parsons Oklahoma State University

DEPARTMENTS 3

Engaging Perspectives: the Young Adult Reader

Brave New World Vs. Brand New Books: Dystopian Novels in the Classroom

Abbey Bachman University of Houston

Conference Flyer 53 54

Guidelines for Authors OKLA Membership Purposeful Technology-Based Literacy: Instruction to Enhance Standardized Test Scores

Latasha Holt Arkansas Tech University

Using Text Sets to Encourage Fluency and Comprehension

ON THE COVER Catalonia, Spain Photograph from unsplash.com

LaShay Jennings East Tennessee State University Edward J. Dwyer East Tennessee State University

EDITORS' EXPRESSIONS

For inquiries, reach us at:

Email: oklahomareader@gmail.com

RECOMMENDED: BOOKS THAT CHALLENGE, DELIGHT, AND INSPIRE Sue Christian Parsons, Ph.D.

Fall 2018: Poetic Perspectives Can I Touch Your Hair? Poems of Race, Mistakes, and Friendships by Irene Latham and Charles Walters, illustrated by Sean Qualls and Selina Alko. (2018, Carol Rhoda Books) Irene and Charles are paired for a poetry project. Write about anything! / It’s not black and white, the teacher explains. But it is, notes Irene. Charles is black and I am white. The children agree to write about everyday things: hair, shoes, school, and church. The series of poems that result, presented in alternating voices and with varied forms, illuminate how race shapes experience and interaction. Challenging and accessible are not often paired terms, but both fit this story in poems that explores differences that make a difference in children’s lives and raises essential questions about equity, respect, and understanding. The tone is authentic, each characters’ voice rings true, and the interactions between Charles and Irene capture the alchemy of discovery in childhood friendships. Authors Latham (who is white) and Walters (who is black) wrote the voices of the characters who share their names in an intentional effort to bring conversations about race to the page for young readers. The artwork, too, was a collaborative effort. In the illustrator note, Qualls and Alko explain that their mixed media approach “mirrors our own philosophy of mixing together our cultures.” Dreamers by Yuyi Morales. (2018, Neal Porter Books) With poetic text as richly realized as the vibrant, evocative artwork, Yuyi Morales tells her story of emigrating from Mexico to the United States with her young son, of struggling to find her way and fit in an unfamiliar land, and of the awe and wonder she experienced when her mother-in-law first took her to a public library. In that welcoming place, Morales discovered picture books and, through them, mastery of a new language and eventually a new career. The spreads depicting the library are a children’s book lover’s fiesta, images of actual books we know and love—books (shared by people who cared) that welcomed an immigrant family and offered them hope, joy, and powerful new dreams. In the author’s note, Morales writes, “One of the most important things I learned at the library is that through books we can find our path and our purpose.” We are stories. We are two languages. We are lucha. We are resilience. We are hope. We are dreams, soñadores of the world. We are Love Amor Love.

Hey, Hey, Hay! A Tale of Bales and the Machines That Make Them by Christy Mihaly, illustrated by Joe Cepeda. (2108, Holiday House) On a cold and wintery day, I love to break out bales of hay. The hay smells fresh, like summer sun. I feed my horses, one by one. Listen and I’ll tell the tale of storing summer in a bale. A young girl narrates this informative tale of how she and her mother grow, harvest, and store hay. With flawlessly metered couplets and a bright tone, Mihaly introduces the machines and explains the processes, including snack breaks with “switchel,” a traditional drink that, along with other specialized vocabulary, is further explained in the accompanying glossary. (There’s a recipe for switchel, too.) Cepeda’s paintings fill the pages and fill out the story around the brief but richly descriptive text. This rural-themed text is a gem. Poetree by Caroline Pignat, illustrated by François Thisdale. (2108, Red Deer Press) Many a young reader has tried a hand at creating acrostic poems and simple rhyming couplets. Pignat shows them a master at work using these forms to detail the life cycle of a tree. Each season is introduced with a descriptive couplet: A sleeping seed begins to grow/shoots and roots in the ground below. The acrostics that follow build on core concept words and further detail the action: Sleep Enfolded in Mother Earth’s Dark, rich dirt. Gently wakened, Each Radicle Makes Its secret way, Nudging forward As The sun whispers: Emerge. Poetic imagery is a perfect match for up close scientific observation. Poetree harnesses the power of both for a content text that is also an excellent mentor text for writers.

School People, edited by Lee Bennett Hopkins, illustrated by Ellen Shi. (2018, Wordsong) This collection begins with Rebecca Kai Dotlich’s poem, “School’s Story,” promising a lively life within “this house of brick” and issuing the invitation to “come on in!” The poems that follow, each crafted by a different poet, celebrate the people who truly make a school a “building full of soul and heart” (Dotlich). The titles are direct and simple: Bus Driver, Crossing Guard, Principal, Teacher, Spanish Teacher, Lunch Lady, Custodian, Art Teacher, Music Teacher, Coach, Theater Teacher, Librarian, Nurse. The poems vary in form, but all are expertly crafted and inviting to readers who will recognize the care and inspiration reflected in the texts and surrounding them every day. They Say Blue by Jillian Tamaki. (2018, Abrams Books for Young Readers) As she sits on the beach, the child narrator observes, “They say blue is the color of the sky. Which is true today!” She goes on to note, though, that water can also be clear, a spray of diamonds when tossed in the air. Caldecott Honor winner Tamaki’s illustrations and text burst with emotion as she explores the many ways we perceive and engage with the world. Seasons change, emotions change—but there is comfort in predictable rhythms, in trusting what is unseen like the yolk in an egg and the blood coursing through out bodies, and in that most delicious knowing that we are loved and safe. It’s not just what we see but how we experience it that makes our world colorful. Twilight Chant by Holly Thompson, illustrated by Jen Betton. (2018, Clarion Books) Betton’s illustrations glow then gradually dim as Thompson lulls us into the wonder of twilight / the low light, capturing the juxtaposition of calm and quiet, rustle and scurry that marks the ephemeral transition between day and night worlds. Each simple but flawlessly crafted verse, nestled discreetly onto a double-page spread, picks up on the activity from the previous page and extends the story, the result being both snapshots of activity—egrets, swallows, deer, bats, rabbits, foxes…--and a panoramic overview of the connectiveness of nature. Poetry at its best captures a full world in few words. This book is an example.

Vivid: Poems and Notes About Color by Julie Paschkis. (2018, Henry Holt and Company) Inquired Patrice: “What color paint would you like tonight? Crimson, scarlet, or cadmium light? Magenta, madder, beet, carmine? Quinacridone rose, alizarin? There are a zillion! Even vermillion!” “Red,” said Fred. Artist Julie Paschkis is known for her bright, colorful, playful illustration style. In Vivid, Paschkis plays with the colors themselves, crafting poems in a variety of styles and tones and illustrating each with her trademark energetic artwork. She punctuates the package with brief informational excerpts about color: science (yellow is the most visible to humans and birds and insights are likely especially sensitive to it; water molecules absorb red, yellow, and orange light, leaving the blue and green for us to see; people with synesthesia experience one sense with another), history (the expense of making purple dye led to it being the color of royalty), language (the many expressions that use color to address emotion), and society (blue is the most popular color around the world).

Suzii Parsons believes that books truly matter in the lives of young people. She is the Jacques Munroe Professor of Reading and Literacy at Oklahoma State University. You can contact Dr. Parsons at sue.parsons@okstate.edu.

ENGAGING PERSPECTIVES: THE YOUNG ADULT READER Sue Christian Parsons, Ph.D.

Illuminating the Past to Inform Today’s Paths: Historical Fiction Novels in Verse Understanding the complexity and significance of what is happening in society today depends in large part on knowing the history that led to it, a history that is often closer than we expect. Rare is the textbook that adequately addresses multicultural perspectives and issues or captures the human experiences that bring students to understand and care. There is a wealth of quality nonfiction books that bring untold and vital stories to the forefront. Just as powerful, and for some readers even more compelling, is well-written historical fiction. Historical fiction draws the humanity of history all the way up to the table so that readers can relate, human to human, listening to and pondering different perspectives. When historical fiction speaks through poetry, this already intimate relationship between the story and the reader is strengthened. Poetry speaks in image and feeling, the very aspects of experience that tend to stay with us so that we ponder them long after the moment has passed. In these novels in verse, historical events are made intimate through finely crafted imagery and evocative language that resounds in head and heart. The novels explored below are well-researched and provide new insights into commonly recognized historical events or periods. Common themes across selections relate to persistence—both the persistence of individuals involved and the dread persistence of racism and other forms of ignorance that mark our history and, still, our present. At the same time, these selections testify to the moral courage that has brought us this far and that we can still summon as we move forward toward a just and welcoming world. Unbound: A Novel in Verse by Ann E. Burg (2016, Scholastic Press.) When 9-year-old Grace learns that she will move from slave quarters to the big house where she will serve the master’s family, her family warns her again and again to hold her tongue and not speak her mind. Grace works hard but seethes about the extreme injustices she sees in even sharper contrast than before now that she lives under the roof and in direct aim of the extreme cruelty of the mistress. That she is treated kindly by the other house slaves makes it even harder for her to hold her tongue. She vents to Aunt Tempie, the kitchen slave who looks after her: Don’t you care? I ask. / Don’t you care that Anna / gets sent to the smokehouse / cause grown people / can’t find they own bedpan / or even dress themselves? Eventually, though, Grace’s thoughts slip out in the wrong context. She overhears a discussion about selling her but, with light skin and blue eyes, Grace is an investment. Another horrid decision is made instead: they will sell Grace’s two little brothers and her mother: Bringin Grace’s family / to the auction block / might finally teach Grace / who she is and / where she belongs. In response, Grace runs under the cover of night to wake her family: Mama! Please! /

Tell Uncle Jim / we got to run away! / We can’t let Master take you. / You said so yourself, Uncle Jim. / You hear auction, / n you run! While most stories readers know tell of slaves escaping through the Underground Railroad to the north, Burg’s characters make a harrowing escape to make a new life in the Dismal Swamp, a part of slave history Burg discovered reading narratives of formerly enslaved people as preserved as part of the Federal Writer’s Project. Ringside 1925: Views from the Scopes Trial by Jen Bryant. (2008, Yearling, Random House.) Life is quiet and predictable in Dayton, Tennessee, until the day high school science teacher, J.T. Scopes, is arrested for teaching the theory of evolution. Suddenly, quiet Dayton is hosting the trial of the century: the lawyers, the scientists, the media, and hosts of interested observers eager to watch the showdown between W.J. Bryan and Clarence Darrow. Members of the community are invigorated by the potential financial boon, but the controversy surrounding the trial strains, but also stretches, individual members of the community. Bryant tells the tale through alternating character perspectives, illuminating varied stances and reactions. Through the characters’ eyes and voices, Bryant offers a ringside seat to both the spectacle and arguments that characterized the controversy and transformed the town for a period. Bryant treats characters on all sides with respect, allowing the reader to consider the complexities at work. In an end note, she traces the aftermath of the trial on the lives of the participants and on society. She observes that while scientific advances and understandings have changed cultural perspectives, for many closing the science/religion gap, there are still significant numbers of Americans who see a tension between the two. The inclusion of evolutionary science in schools is still debated today almost 100 years after Darwin was tried in Dayton. Audacity by Melanie Crowder. (2015, Penguin Random House.) Clara Lemlich emigrated from Russia to the U.S. with her family, one of millions of Jewish immigrants in the early 20th century. And, like so many of those other young women, she found work in the garment industry in New York City where she was forced to toil in dangerous conditions for meager pay. Just as she refused to conform to traditional female roles expected by her family—she was determined to get an education rather than take a back seat to the men—Clara refused to accept the inhumane circumstance in the factories, eventually organizing and leading the women to strike and unionize. Her bravery, along with that of her coworkers, eventually forced massive change in how workers were treated and led to the kind worker protections that are law today. Emerging from Crowder’s deft

free verse, Clara’s passion, courage, determination, struggle, and hopes burn bright, and her determination to stand up to injustice may well inspire and provide a blueprint for readers to do the same today. Audacity was a finalist for the National Jewish Book Award. Jazz Owls: A Novel of the Zoot Suit Riots by Margarita Engle, artwork by Rudy Gutierrez. (2018, Simon and Schuster.) The setting is California during World War II. Throngs of navy sailors stream into Los Angeles on their way to the war from all over the U.S., scared teens / who long to dance, need to leap, / craving that feeling of being so alive / as they pass through L.A. / on their swift way / to the horrors /of war. Marsela and Lorena work all day in the canning factories, then head to the USO with other “owls” to dance with the sailors to an energetic fusion of jazz and salsa played by … drummers, / trumpeters, / and saxophonists, wizards of rhythm, / wearing out loose suits, the zoot shape / that drapes us to keep dance leaps smooth / and COOL in this HOT summer river / of JAZZ! The girls feel patriotic, proud Americans contributing to the war effort by lifting the spirits of the sailors. Their older brother, Nicolás, is serving overseas, so their younger brother comes along as a chaperone, sporting his loose Zoot suit that is perfectly tailored for the high energy dancing moves. But racism is alive and well in Los Angeles. A mysterious murder leads to indiscriminate arrests of Mexican American boys and a crackdown on what is dubbed the “Mexican problem,” including but certainly not limited to, a moratorium on Zoot suits and interracial dancing. Goaded by opportunistic journalists and racist police, violence erupts, with sailors brutally beating Mexican Americans in a weekend of horrific brutality that came to be known as the Zoot Suit Riots. Engle writes from within the world of one Mexican American family, but also in the voices of the police, journalists, and sailors, exposing a rarely shared event in history and shedding light on continuing tensions that mark our society. The novel moves toward justice as the characters stand up to racism, holding firm to their own citizenship and value. As the novel draws to a close, Engle broadens the scope, addressing segregation of Mexican-American troops and bans on interracial marriage (including mention of the Perez v Sharp case that challenged California’s anti-miscegenation laws), with her characters voicing hope and determination for a better future. In an author’s note, Engle notes how this tumultuous era gave rise to Mexican American activists who launched nonviolent protests against the Vietnam war and demanded justice for agricultural workers. The message: stand up, speak out, stay the course to justice…and don’t forget to dance.

Loving vs. Virginia: A Documentary Novel of the Landmark Civil Rights Case by Patricia Hruby Powell, artwork by Shadra Strickland. (2017, Chronicle Books.) In 1967, the U.S. Supreme Court reversed a ruling by the state of Virginia that upheld the state’s anti-miscegenation law that denied Mildred and Richard Loving the right to live together and raise their family in their home state. This compelling work interweaves primary source documents—newspaper excerpts, legal rulings, and photos— and illuminating illustrations with poems in dual voices, Richard’s and Mildred’s, telling the story of their love and fight to be afforded and enjoy the basic human rights of marriage and family. Richard, who was white, and Mildred, who was “colored,” grew up together, friends in a small community where their families intermingled freely despite racial segregation and vicious prejudice surrounding them. They fell in love and, in June of 1958, left the state to marry because interracial marriage was outlawed in Virginia. Returning home to start their lives together, they were arrested and, upon release, forced to live apart: I don’t know why they / decide to let me out. / I go home to my parents’ house-- / the house where me and Richard were arrested. / But I get to be with my Sidney. / Richard at his parents’ house-- / the Loving house. / They say, / “Keep apart.” / We surely do not want to go back to jail. / Doesn’t matter one hoot / that we married in / Washington, D.C. / Here / in Virginia / can’t be married. / We’re told it’s true / in most every other state as well. / No race mixing. / That’s what they say. / Our baby will be born / before the course date. The Lovings move to D.C. so they can live as a family, but they pine for their lives surrounded by family in rural Virginia. Inspired by the March on Washington, Mildred writes to Bobby Kennedy: I am Negro and Indian, / my husband is white. / and we cannot be married / and live at home in Caroline County. / Please help us if you can. At Kennedy’s suggestion, she writes to the ACLU and gets a response from a lawyer who takes on and eventually wins this landmark fight for justice. Powell provides a wealth of resources within the text, including a case summary, timeline of events, and extensive bibliography. A simple final note explaining that “the last anti-miscegenation law in the United States, in Alabama, was reversed in the year 2000,” highlights how very close history is to us and, like the rest of this book, opens the door to dialogue about continuing struggles for equal rights in our country.

Mrs. Abbey Bachmann

__________________________________________ Brave New World Vs. Brand New Books: Dystopian Novels in the Classroom "Why do we have to read THIS book Ms. ?" "Is this book boring? Because it looks boring!" "Can't we read an 80 page book instead of this one?" These are just a few of the questions I hear out of my students' mouths as we begin a new novel unit. This year, however, I decided to introduce class novel(s) to my students that would avoid all the moans and groans that normally come with the territory. This year's Dystopian Novel Unit was, without a doubt, the favorite unit for all of my students and fellow teachers. Brand new books about brave new worlds was the most successful part of the school year by far. Dystopian novels such as George Orwell's 1984, Ray Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451, and Ayn Rand's Anthem are classics that have been cornerstones in English classes. Dystopian novels have been a go-to for teachers for many reasons: students find the idea of an "alternate universe" exciting, these worlds can be an escape for students; many of these societies parallel those of students' own lives. Students, like many adults, want to feel that there can be a fictional escape, even if only for a moment, from the reality they live in (Nadworny, 2017). Teachers will continue to pull text for their classroom from the array of older dystopian novels out there, but there are powerful arguments for introducing fresh, new, and creative dystopian literature that has been recently published. One compelling advantage is the lack of established online interpretations and/or movies for students to use in order to skate by doing the

actual reading. Dystopian novels help students enter a brave new world, and this can be done with brand new books. Dystopian YA Novel Selection New dystopian literature is being published frequently and consistently (Springen, 2010). Any time I see a student reading a new book in class, the odds are pretty strong that it's a dystopian novel. Dystopian literature is appealing to students because of the â&#x20AC;&#x153;what ifâ&#x20AC;? factor. What if this could really happen? Could it happen? The fear of the future and an appreciation for what they have now sucks students into dystopian literature. Often, characters that are regular teens are the heroes and heroines in these tales of fighting against an oppressive government (Springen, 2010) Students love the uncertainty of it all. So how did I go about choosing which Dystopian books to use for my English I classes this year? I knew that I wanted to provide my students with a choice of books. Knowing that student engagement increases when choice in reading is provided (Miller, 2012), three books sounds like an ideal number in order to allow my students to choose one of the three. I knew that I would need to read the books myself over the summer and prepare materials, so more than three may have been too strenuous of a workload. Also, I wanted to select novels that prevented students from taking the easy road out. I have frequently heard students say they can get by with summaries online and/or watching the movie version of the book. I knew that I wanted students to read and not have the option to let the internet do the work for them. I started with the authors I love and the authors that I knew kids love. Neal Shusterman was always a student favorite when I taught 6th and 7th grade, and it just so happened that he had a new Dystopian novel series released in 2016, the first book being Scythe. The book takes place in a futuristic society where humans have mastered death, so in order to control the

population, Scythes are charged with the task of deciding who lives and dies. The main characters are chosen to be Scythe apprentices, only to realize that it may not be the all powerful and glamorous job that society deems it to be. For the second book, I had heard great reviews from our school librarian about Cecelia Ahren's new book Flawed (2017), which, like Scythe, was going to be a series. I knew that the strong, female protagonist would resonate with my young female students, and after reading the book, I was sold. The novel's main character commits an act deemed unacceptable by society and must live with the consequences with which she doesn't agree. She learns to find herself and her place in society through these struggles, a thematic notion that many young girls can connect with. In order to find a third dystopian novel that would be more appealing to the male student population, I turned my search towards a sci-fi dystopian book. A new writer by the name of Brenden Reichs caught my attention with his novel titled Nemesis (2017). The only of the three novels not set the in future, Nemesis explores a small town during the present day with two main characters who realize that they are part of a more sinister and mind-boggling plan than they could have ever imagined. Alternate realities, video games, and Dashnerâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s The Maze Runner (2009)-esq are the key words I used when pitching this book to my students. At the beginning of the year, my students received their school supply list with the three titles included and they were allowed to choose any of the three novels they wished. For students who were unable to purchase books or didn't purchase books, I had a couple extra copies of each book that I would loan out to these students for the duration of the unit. They were all able to get a good idea of what each book was about by the synopsis, but the only way they would be able to find out what exactly happens in the book would be to read it -- and that's exactly what they did.

Teaching Three Novels at Once Regardless of how many students I had in each class that selected each novel, I made sure that all would receive the same instruction, skills, assignments, and assessments throughout the unit -- only their work would be centered on their chosen novel. Once I knew which students were reading which novels, all students received reading calendars with chapters to read each day, and due dates for reading checks (answering questions about the book).

Many days during the unit, students would work in novel groups with alternating activities, e.g., Day 1 of a three-day lesson might look as follows: The students reading Nemesis would meet with me for a discussion of the chapters that they had read (see questions below).

Additionally, we would discuss a particular reading skill, such as summarizing, and I would have the students complete a summary activity over a particular chapter/section of Nemesis. While I would work with one group, another group would have an independent 15

reading day. Independent reading time is crucial in allowing students to put the skills that are fresh in their mind to use in a novel of their choice (Francois, 2013). The third group would have an independent activity over their novel that practices the skill for those 3 days, such as summarizing. All of the skills focused on for this unit are included in the Oklahoma Academic Standards for 9th grade English and Language Arts. Standard 1, speaking and listening, is practiced and addressed through the group discussion during the unit. Standard 2, reading process, is addressed through skills such as summary and main idea and detail. Standard 3, critical reading, is enforced when students focused on authorâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s purpose, thematic idea, and controlling images in their novels. We also paired the dystopian novels with thematically linked informational articles. Students had to find the common thematic idea and make connections across genres. Students also had a vocabulary list specific to their novel, which addresses Standard 4, vocabulary. Standard 8, independent reading, was addressed with the reading days we provided students in class. It was important for me to develop independent work that was thorough and clear for students to be able to work on without my help. The next day, the groups would rotate. After 3 days, I would have met with each group of students, been able to talk to them about what they were reading to assess understanding and facilitate discussion, allow them to read in order to alleviate the homework load, and set aside time for them to show me their ability to apply the week's skill to their book. These discussions were extremely important to the process, and as Skeeters et al. (2016) â&#x20AC;&#x153;When we assign reading, rarely do we have meaningful conversations about these texts with all students. Now that we offer choice, our conversations are about books students enjoy reading, and the discussions are exciting and passionateâ&#x20AC;? (p. 6).

Because students really had to read and do their homework to do well in class, it was clear and apparent which students had done the work and which had not. Students learned quickly that there wouldn't be an easy way out, and all of my students were successful. The best part about this? The students loved it. I knew exactly what every kid thought about their books because of the small group discussions and book specific assignments, and what books would be the most popular. Spoiler - they loved them all. But even the few who weren't totally sold on their book had strong opinions about the themes in the book they were reading. Once those students that thought they could get by not reading realized that there were no Cliffnotes or Sparknotes on these books, or movies, they completed their works successfully. NO student, for the first time in many years, failed my class the first semester. They read, they loved it, and if they didn't love the book, they had a classmate that had convinced them to read the book that they had read in their novel group. An added bonus? All of these novels have a second book in the series. Even though I did not assign the second book as classwork, many students purchased these second novels and read them on their own. Students reading because they want to, not because they are forced to, is music to an English teacher's ears. Assessing Knowledge and the Nitty Gritty In order to reduce the amount of prep work for this, the other English teachers and I quickly realized that dividing and conquering was the best option. We created all assignments, activities, and tests as a team, and then we would partner off and work on altering each so that it would be specific to the information in the novels. For example, when working on summary skills with our students, each novel group would have received a summary page like the one below for Scythe, for their novel.

Each assignment was specific enough to each novel, that students were clear on what to do on each assignment without further instruction from me. Teachers did not have to give three separate sets of instructions. All teachers had read all the novels, so grading and assessing student knowledge was a pretty smooth process. For teachers that may be working at a school where they are the only English teacher, sentence stems can be a big help. Teachers could create one resource with one novel, and keep the same stems for the next novel, but substitute specific information for each novel. Regardless of if a teacher is working by themselves or with a team,

all teachers should read all of the books that students are being asked to read. Genuine conversation can really only be had when both teacher and student have read the text. Takeaways Why new novels? No student already had a preconceived notion of what the book was about nor did they have any older sibling tell them the book wasnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t interesting. No student would go home and "just watch the movie instead" - there was no movie. Why dystopian novels? Simply put - student interest. Despite what kinds of books my particular students liked to read, they all loved their chosen novel. Being able to escape the reality of their high school and their world, even if just for that unit, made all the difference. Additionally, many students were able to gain a deeper understanding of the book by being able to talk about it with peers. Discussions not led by the teacher proved to be the biggest impact for many students (Pyne, 2012). While I know that there will always be students that find their way around the work, more students than ever before loved the work, enjoyed coming to class, and talked to me about reading and what they loved about their book. Really, what more could an English teacher ask for? Please join us to talk with author Abbey Bachman about these ideas on Monday, January 21, 2019 via https://educationokstate.zoom.us/j/619468827

Abbey Bachman has been a secondary English teacher for over ten years. She currently is PhD student in Curriculum and Instruction at the University of Houston. She may be reached via at abbeygagnon09@gmail.com.

References Ahern, C. (2017). Flawed. New York: Square Fish Publishers. Bradbury, R. (1953). Farenheit 451. New York: Ballantine Books. Dashner, J. (2009). The Maze Runner. New York: Delacorte Press. Francois, C. (2013). Reading is about relating: Urban youths give voice to the possibilities for school literacy. Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy, 57(2), 141-149. doi:10.1002/JAAL.218 Miller, D. (2012). Creating a classroom where readers flourish. Reading Teacher, 66(2), 88-92. doi:10.1002/TRTR.01109 Nadworny, E. (2017, December 18). Why teens find the end of the world so appealing NPR Ed Podcast retrieved from https://www.npr.org/sections/ed/2017/12/18/ 536007249/why-teens-find-the-end-of-the-world-so-appealing Orwell, G. (1949). 1984. London: Harvill Secker. Pyne, K. B. (2012). Reading and college readiness. Educational Leadership, 69(9), 1-4. Rand, A. (1946). Anthem. Pamphleteers Publishing. Reichs, B. (2017). Nemesis. New York: G.P. Putnamâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Sons Books for Young Readers. Shusterman, N. (2016). Scythe. New York: Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers. Skeeters, K., Campbell, B., Dubitsky, A., Faron, E., Gieselmann, K., George, D., â&#x20AC;Ś Wager, D., (2016). The top five reasons we love giving students choice in reading. English Leadership Quarterly, 38(3) 6-7. Springen, K. (2010). Apocalypse now: teens turn to dystopian novels. Publishers Weekly, 257(7), 21-24. Retrieved from http://link.galegroup.com.ezproxy.lib.uh.edu/apps/doc/ A219307453/LitRC?u=txshracd2588&sid=LitRC&xid=6e43a8d3

Dr. Latasha Holt

Purposeful Technology-Based Literacy Instruction to Enhance Standardized Test Scores The emphasis of technology into today’s K-12 classroom requires literacy instruction to be viewed differently than in the past. “Classroom contexts are constantly changing, especially where technology is concerned” (Straub, 2009, p. 646). The U.S. Department of Education (2010) has called for teachers to “incorporate 21 st century skills within the curricula” (p. 10). With the increase of technology requirements and now technology imbedded in state curricula and with important standardized literacy tests, some form of technology integration can be found in most classrooms. “Delivering assessments via computers is becoming more and more prevalent in educational assessments” (Piaw, 2012, p. 655). Online assessments are now being used across the nation to determine reading ability. Leu et al. (2015) argued that “new online assessments of reading [will] require an adequate number of online research and comprehension tasks” (p.16). Holt (2016) asserted that, school systems should support an atmosphere of purposeful reading instruction that integrates technology. Without carefully thought out lesson planning and technology classroom management, purposeful literacy technology instruction is often neglected. Teaching students to be literate still requires the same basic concepts. However, skills required for student output methods have changed with the technology movement.

Now students draft thoughts in word processing programs, text boxes, and online chat formats instead of only pencil and paper assessments. To ethically require students to take computerized reading tests, it is imperative the classroom reading and writing instruction provide students with a strong foundation for success. Students and teachers need a literacy-technology skill set that supports students being required to demonstrate literacy understandings using an online, computer-based format. When comparing paper-based testing to computer-based methods, disadvantages with paper-based tests become apparent. Advocates of standardized testing remark that benefits of online testing outweigh the cons. Prometric (2005) explains that computerized standardized test results can be returned to school systems faster using the immediate scoring feature, are overall less of a hassle on school systems, and provide “data-rich results.” Not only are they more efficient but they come at a cheaper price as well. Computerized formats of standardized testing will not be going away. Teachers are often “in a constant struggle to provide opportunities for students to experience technology testing strategies that promote success on computer-based assessments” (Holt, 2018, p.15). With technology testing strategies in mind, it is vital to reflect on exactly what kind of skills students must acquire to best demonstrate an accurate picture of a student’s individual reading and writing ability and implement technology-based activities that afford student success on standardized tests and beyond (Holt, 2016). Simple computer lab time, often only once a week, is not enough. According to Holt (2016), students are no longer required to “bubble” answers on a paper-pencil standardized test, they are now required to click, drag, drop, and to form responses using a mouse and keyboard. Explicit

lesson planning is needed to integrate technology and literacy into the curriculum to best address these skills. There is a disconnect between literacy, technology, and lesson plan needs in the classroom. According to Biancarosa & Griffiths (2012), “rarely is technology an organic part of a lesson plan” (p.149). With new computer-based testing formats, students need explicit lessons that teach proper technology skills to support literacy responses. It is important that strategies be considered when planning daily literacy lessons that will ultimately meet requirement standards and afford students the best opportunity for assessment success. Furthermore, “For teachers to see e-reading [online standardized testing] technology as useful, they need help adjusting to and capitalizing on the changing technological landscape” (Biancaros & Griffiths, 2012, p.150). If certain classroom teachers are struggling with philosophical concerns regarding the integration of technology into the classroom, more conversations would be appropriate to support the teacher. Technology and Literacy Instruction Collide Apps, websites, word processing, and digital classrooms are now a daily part of most classrooms. Online forums powered by Google, Moodle, Blackboard and others have quickly become the method that students are expected to use for engagement with the class content. The question to address is, “Do these methods align with standardized testing methods and future needs?” Consider the following common scenario: If an elementary classroom has five tablets, two desktop computers, and two laptops, the teacher should consider how the

students are accessing these devices. The teacher must also consider how implementing these different devices into lesson plans are allowing students to practice technology skills that promote success on standardized literacy tests. During a standardized literacy test, if students are required to demonstrate literacy skills on a desktop computer using a mouse and keyboard, such skills are very different from those using a touch screen device. Classroom instruction must support these diverse technological needs. The following should be considered by school systems, individual teachers, and other professional learning communities: 1. Identify needs. Begin by assessing the situation. Identifying and focusing on what is actually happening in each classroom with literacy instruction and technology integration will serve as a useful foundation. It is also important to participate in discussions that consider both local and state requirements for testing as mandated by the legislation. Five years ago, Segool, Carlson, Goforth, Von Der Embsen & Barterian (2013) reminded us that â&#x20AC;&#x153;an educational accountability climate in which schools face difficult choices about how to use limited resources to maximize student learning, understanding the effect of test anxiety on studentsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; test performance and psychological well-being is essentialâ&#x20AC;? (p.497). No significant change has occurred. Support for teachers, students, and research are still needed. 2.

Plan with the end in mind. As a professional learning community, set literacy-technology goals for the classroom as needed. These goals can be a call to action for school communities when determining grade level expectations and what end results should be. Professionals should take into

consideration the demands placed on students. These demands might include an end of module exam where students must show growth. The demands could be pressure to perform on high-stakes tests often used for data decision making purposes and to meet the reporting requirements with an academic improvement plan. In some cases, the student could be attempting to present knowledge and skills on a college predictor exam like the ACT Aspire. The focus should shift to how technology can be used to promote literacy conversations about “best practices” to support students and how sharing of resources to meet these goals should be handled? Straub (2009) noted that, “teachers [have] mentioned that professional learning networks (e.g., Twitter, blogs, professional development) played the biggest role in their integration of technology” (p. 626). This endeavor is best addressed in a learning community with other educators with reflection on what is working and what changes are needed. 3. Techno-literacy environment. Educators should reflect on classrooms of the past and ways to create a classroom environment that is current in supporting literacy using technology. This should not be limited to the physical arrangement, but also should consider classroom management lessons that will be needed to explicitly manage technology and literacy as one. These lessons might include setting up digital portfolios to display work or how to effectively create a digital slide show. Students are expected to revise and edit work using a word processor and an online platform. Providing explicit lessons to students will support technology tasks. Without this consideration,

students and teachers waste a great deal of time grappling with technology instead of literacy. 4. Respect. The classroom culture must contain a culture of respect for literacy, learning, and computers. This culture shift will be a change in setting classroom expectations with students. Educators must emphasize and promote the importance of a class culture that respects technology related issues including file sharing, plagiarism, and one that differentiates between “home” technology and “school” technology. Technology at home is often explored for leisure. School technology time should be used for explicit educational purposes. Class constructed anchor charts and whole group brainstorming can work as a scaffold to support respect in the classroom. Having a plan in place is beneficial when managing class issues that arise. Parent communication and teacher collaboration is necessary to explain different ideas with the technological integration that will be expected of the students at school and at home. 5. Support change. A plan to support students while continuing to work as a collaborative team to provide a technology enriched curriculum must be set into motion. Whether working with a veteran teacher or a new teacher just beginning, all need support within a continuing process involving assessing technology needs, implementing goals, and reflecting for future growth. Straub (2009) declared the need for administrators to be more supportive and focus agendas that promoted technology; then technology would be more widely adopted by teachers and staff. Conversations with fellow teachers,

administrators, and support staff who best support changes and implementations are necessary, while being reflective on what technology works and what needs more time to improve. 6. It is about details. It is important to think about details that play a part within the unique process to integrate literacy and technology. Considering how computer lab time is used; supporting learners that need special considerations; and other student challenges, including the fine motor skills needed to use devices, should be discussed. Assistive technologies such as screen readers or “speech to text” tools that are used in daily situations to support literacy success should be made known to members of the educational support team. Teacher and administration philosophies about integrating technology and literacy in the classroom should be discussed. Concluding Thoughts Supporting students and teachers faced with online, computer-based standardized testing is necessary. Teaching to the test is not effective practice. It is important to support teachers and students with literacy and technology integration. Luke (2000) asserted that “as we are all being pushed onto the on ramps of the information superhighway, it is critical for educators at all levels to take charge of reshaping curriculum and pedagogy in relation to [information technology].” Holt (2018) stated, “these same issues are still a problem in classrooms almost twenty years later” (p. 14). With the demands placed on students, it is necessary students are well versed in critical thinking skills and technology to succeed in life. Teachers must prepare students for a technological future. This includes preparing students to think critically and use

technology for jobs that do not currently exist. When needed teachers and administrators must analyze personal teaching philosophies and revisit with technology demands of the future. Please join us to talk with author Dr. Latasha Holt about these ideas on Tuesday, February 26, 2019 via https://educationokstate.zoom.us/j/742921820

Dr. Latasha Holt is an assistant professor at Arkansas Tech University. She may be reached via email at latashaholt@gmail.com.

References

Biancarosa, G., & Griffiths, G. G. (2012). Technology tools to support reading in the digital age. The Future of Children, 22(2), 139-160. Holt, L. (2016). Teacher and student perceptions of stress-reduction strategies on standardized tests (Doctoral dissertation). Holt, L. (2018). Online standardized testing with young children: teachers action research cries out for help. Arkansas Association of Teacher Educators, 8(1). Leu, D. J., Forzani, E., Rhoads, C., Maykel, C., Kennedy, C., & Timbrell, N. (2015). The new literacies of online research and comprehension: Rethinking the reading achievement gap. Reading Research Quarterly, 50(1), 37-59. Luke, C. (2000). What next? Toddler netizens, playstation thumb, technoliteracies. Contemporary Issues in Early Childhood, 1(1), 95-100. Piaw, C. Y. (2012). Replacing paper-based testing with computer-based testing in assessment: Are we doing wrong?. Procedia-Social and Behavioral Sciences, 64, 655-664. Prometric, T. (2005). The benefits and best practices of computer-based testing. Tomson Prometric, Thomson Prometric Best Practices. pdf. Segool, N. K., Carlson, J. S., Goforth, A. N., Von Der Embse, N., & Barterian, J. A. (2013). Heighted test anxiety among young children: elementary school studentsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; anxious responses to high stakes testing. Psychology in the Schools, 50(5), 489499. Straub, E. T. (2009). Understanding technology adoption: Theory and future directions for informal learning. Review of Educational Research, 79(2), 625-649. 29

U. S. Department of Education, Office of Educational Technology. (2010). Transforming American education: Learning powered by technology. National Educational Technology Plan 2010. Retrieved October 29, 2011, from: http://www.ed.gov/technology/netp-2010.

LaShay Jennings and Dr. Edward J. Dwyer

Using Text Sets to Encourage Fluency and Comprehension A text set is a set of books with a common theme. The books that the classroom teacher chooses for a specific text set should range in difficulty level from approximately two years below the designated grade level of the target class and two years above that level. Text sets can be used to foster increased fluency and comprehension in students as well as in-depth study of a particular theme. The text set has information about the common theme that contains both fictionalized as well as strictly factual information. Often fiction is interwoven with fact in that the events depicted are couched in terms where characters experience the events within a historical context. The text set presented herein, the Trail of Tears, is focused on upper elementary and middle school students; however, the strategies presented can be applied in a variety of contexts and learning environments. For example, we have used text sets with such themes as Aesop fables, immigration, and first ladies in the White House. The overarching goal of this work is to build background knowledge through reading a variety of quality texts and eventually master reading of a more complex â&#x20AC;&#x153;target textâ&#x20AC;? (Lupo, Strong, Lewis, Walpole, & McKenna, 2018). The target text is selected for students to demonstrate knowledge and understanding of the major topic of the text set. Practice with texts at instructional level and independent level and in-depth comprehension study can lead to success in reading and reporting on information presented in the target text. At the outset of the text set study, the concepts presented in the target text are likely complex for the majority of the

students. However, through the study of concepts and concept-focused vocabulary the information presented in the target text becomes more comprehensible for students. Information can be enhanced through Internet searches but, initially, the text set study in this context is based on books. We like to stay with books to avoid overcomplicating the study of the topic. Information based on Internet searches provides additional information for possible study after the text set study is completed. We have found that integrating Web-based study with the text set can detract from the focus that involves carefully selected books. A basic model of a text set is presented in Appendix A with an accompanying photograph. The text set provides opportunities for developing in-depth knowledge of subject matter. All too often, as the National Council for the Social Studies (2008) suggested, students experience superficial encounters with subject matter. In addition to providing an in-depth study, we propose that text sets provide opportunities for encouraging reading fluency and comprehension. For example, in the Trail of Tears text set, there are stories and informational texts that can be made into readers’ theater scripts and productions. We propose that fluency can be enhanced through repeated readings of passages directly taken from text set material or in a summarized format. Students practice using such strategies as echo reading, choral reading, paired reading, repeated readings, and shared reading to foster fluency (Rasinski, 2010). We encourage students to practice reading with expression and fluency through the application of the strategies presented above and culminate in what Young, Stokes, and Rasinski (2017) described as the “grand performance, when students perform their assigned scripts for an authentic and supportive audience” (p. 354). Readers’ theater performances can be recorded and a CD produced to allow students the opportunity to hear themselves read fluently. We produce CDs of individual students reading a

familiar selection or summary of events from one of the books in the text set. We make professional looking labels using materials such as those produced by Memorex™ and Avery™. We can Google the topic and select “Images” and find an appropriate picture to add to the label. A step further is to make a video recording of the reading. Students are delighted with their CD recordings and their video recordings. The video recordings can be emailed to the student’s home and to relatives and friends. For example, a grade four teacher we know works with several students who have grandparents who live a long distance away from the students’ homes. The students send video recordings of their reading to appreciative grandparents. The video recording and the CD can become family treasures. In this light, Braker, (2013) determined that learning to read proficiently must be authentically interesting and enjoyable and not a quest for competence that demonstrates a “robotic” (p. 201) rendition of the text. We like the CD because it is a physical product rather than just a digital file. Students like getting their hands on their very own CD. For example, a parent emailed to tell us that her son came racing out of school waving his CD and immediately wanted to play it in the van. Photograph 2 is picture of a CD made of the cover of a book by Hest (1997) from a text set about immigration. Another authentic way to use text sets to help students develop as readers, specifically in the area of fluency, is to help students develop news reports based on content from the text sets. We invite students to watch the local evening news or other news formats and study how the reporters fluently present the information with their tone, expression, volume, and pace Several teachers we know tape news broadcasts and select reports that are appropriate in content. Students develop news reports based on information from the text set. For example, a news reporter might interview Cherokee Chief John Ross and ask about his meeting with President

Martin Van Buren. Sometimes the news broadcast can get quite elaborate with an eventual broadcast on the school closed-circuit TV system. For example, in a nearby elementary school library, there is a “news” room with a desk for the students to act as anchors and guests. Comprehension is strengthened through repeated readings described above and through questioning strategies. We like a simple but comprehensive set of questions based on a model presented by Trosky (1972) that we have used extensively. The categories presented by Trosky are easy to remember and, through application, become natural in conversation as well as in formal evaluations of students’ comprehension. The categories are: 1. Literal questions wherein the answer is directly found in the text. Ex. What is the name of the Cherokee chief who went to Washington? 2. Inference questions involve drawing conclusions not directly stated but based on information presented. Ex. Why did “Sarah” say that she only wanted to be known as “Tsaluh?” 3. Imagination questions are presented to study possible outcomes of events. Ex. What did Sequoyah do after he left his people and traveled further west? 4. Evaluation questions are designed to study if a character/historical figure acted appropriately. Ex. “Did the soldiers behave badly when they forced the Cherokee people to leave their homes?” Please explain. 5. Translation questions are asked to determine understanding of vocabulary and concepts. For example: “What is another way of saying ‘Forced Relocation?’ We avoid asking questions like, “What did the author mean by saying that ‘Relocation’ was forced upon the Native Americans?” Students would likely answer, “The author meant they had to relocate.” Conclusions In accord with research by Cummins and Stallmeyer-Gerard (2011) we have found that students learn to synthesize information and develop their knowledge based on a variety of printed texts through the intensive engagement involved in studying the text sets. Students

enhance their learning by presenting their knowledge of the topic through activities such as reporting events in a TV news format. Practice for news reporting encourages fluency development which enhances comprehension. Students often say, “I want to sound good!” Production of a CD and/or a video production adds to the competencies developed. We found that the strategies presented can be modified for a wide variety of learning environments, age groups, and content areas. We greatly enjoy using text sets within the contexts presented above. Study of the strategies presented suggests that the activities effectively complement a variety of standards. We especially like that the activities are enjoyable and provide an opportunity for lively and interesting study. We appreciate the emphasis Harvey and Ward (2017) place on developing literacy competencies within an enjoyable setting. In this light, Harvey and Ward retired the word “struggling” and replaced it with the word “striving”. We hope that text sets can be a means of encouraging struggling learners to become striving readers and eventually, as Harvey and Ward proposed, “thriving” readers.

Please join us to talk with authors LaShay Jennings and Dr. Ed Dwyer about these ideas on Thursday, March 28, 2019 via https://educationokstate.zoom.us/j/922528485

LaShay Jennings is a clinical literacy education instructor at East Tennessee State University (ETSU). She may be reached via email at JenningsJL@etsu.edu.

Dr. Ed Dwyer is a literacy education professor at the same university. He may be reached via email at dwyer@etsu.edu.

References Braker, J. (2013) Power of books. View from the chalkboard. The Reading Teacher, 67(3), 201. Cummins, S., & Stallmeyer-Gerard, C. (2011). Teaching for synthesis of informational text with read-alouds. The Reading Teacher, 64(6), 394-405. Harvey, S. & Ward, A. (2018) From striving to thriving. New York: Scholastic. Hest, A. (1997) When Jessie came across the sea. Illustrated by P.J. Lynch. Candlewick Press: Watertown, MA. Lupo, S.M., Strong, J.Z., Lewis, W., Walpole, S., & McKenna, M.C. (2018). Building background knowledge through text sets: Rethinking text sets. Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy, 61(4), 433â&#x20AC;&#x201C;444. National Council for the Social Studies. (2008). A vision of powerful teaching and learning in the social studies: Building social understanding. A position statement of the National Council for the Social Studies. http://www.socialstudies.org/positions/powerful Rasinski, T. (2010). The fluent reader. New York: Scholastic. Trosky, O. (1972). Questioning behavior in the development of reading comprehension. In H.A. Klein (Ed.) The quest for competency in teaching reading. Newark, DE: International Literacy Association. Young, C., Stokes, F., & Rasinski, T. (2017). Readers theater plus comprehension and word study. The Reading Teacher, 71, 351-355.

Appendix A: The Trail of Tears Text Set Introduction: “The Trail of Tears”, often referred to as “The Trail on which they Wept,” is the story of the removal of native Americans from the southeastern part of the United States. The Native Americans were forced to travel many miles from their homes to settle in what is now Oklahoma. The trip was hazardous and many people died along the way. The students will read about the journey of the Native Americans and how it came about that they were forced to move. The level of information presented at the outset will depend on the competency levels of the students relative to the complexity of the information presented. Please see the photograph. Trail of Tears Model Text Set Benoit, P. (2013). The trail of tears: Cornerstones of freedom series. New York: Children’s Press/Scholastic. Broyles, A. (2008). Pricilla and the hollyhocks. Illustrated by A. Alter. Watertown, MA: Charlesbridge. Dennis, Y. W. (2004). Sequoyah 1770? – 1843. Mankato, MN: Capstone Press. Dwyer, H. & Birchfield, D.L. (2012). Cherokee: History and culture. New York: Gareth Stevens Publishing. Hoobler, D. & Hoobler, T. (1992). Ilustrated by S.S. Burrus. The trail on which they wept. Morristown, NJ: Silver Burdett. Rea, Amy C. (2017). The trail of tears: Wild west series. Minneapolis, MN: Abdo Publishing. Schwartz, H.E. (2015). Forced removal: Causes and effects of the Trail of Tears. North Mankato: MN: Capstone Press. Shaffer, J.J. (2016). What’s your story, Sequoyah? Minneapolis, MN: Lerner Press.

Smith-Llera, D. (2016). The Cherokee: The past and present of a proud nation. North Mankato, MN: Capstone Press.

Photograph 1: Trail of Tears text set.

Photograph 2. CD with label.

The Oklahoma Reader Talk with Authors and Converse with Educators The Oklahoma Reader Editors invite you to engage in professional conversation.

Three times during 2019 spring semester we will host onehour meet-the-author sessions. The authors who published their work in The Oklahoma Reader Fall 2018 will share a brief overview of their manuscript and the remaining time will be educational dialogue with the author(s). To join, simply click on the link below for each session.

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Monday, January 21 from 7:30-8:30PM o Talk with Abbey Bachman o Brave New World Vs. Brand New Books: Dystopian Novels in the Classroom o https://educationokstate.zoom.us/j/619468827

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Tuesday, February 26 from 7:30-8:30PM o Talk with Latasha Holt o Purposeful Technology-Based Literacy Instruction to Enhance Standardized Test Scores o https://educationokstate.zoom.us/j/742921820

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Thursday, March 28 from 7:30-8:30PM o Talk with LaShay Jennings and Ed Dwyer o Using Text Sets to Encourage Fluency and Comprehension o https://educationokstate.zoom.us/j/922528485

Questions? Please email the editors at oklahomareader@gmail.com

Advocating for Education: Sharing Your Teacher Voice, Part I Shelbie Witte, Ph.D. Oklahoma State University It was a difficult year to be a teacher. Let’s be honest, most years are difficult, but this year, especially so in Oklahoma, as we were frequently reminded that our work as educators comes with the stipulation that we must consistently remind legislators, policy makers, and our communities that ‘we are professionals’. Rarely do other professionals such as physicians, attorneys, or accountants, have to defend on so frequent a basis their own approaches and practices. Adding to the complexities of these discussions is the statewide debate on teacher pay and the statewide walkout that ensued. Defending our professionalism while also advocating for being recognized as a professional, both in approach and in pay, is a daunting task. And yet, advocacy is a necessary function of our already complicated profession. Why advocacy? There are many who might argue that advocacy is too political an activity in which to engage, but I beg to differ. First, when we engage in advocacy activities, we inspire, learn from, and lift up other teachers. One only need walk the perimeter of the state capitol this year to see direct evidence of this inspiration. Teachers drew upon the energy created by being together, physically and mentally, as a common cause brought teachers, administrators, parents, students, and community leaders together. Next, when we engage in advocacy activities, we are able to share the full picture of the legislative decisions being made. Many times, our families and communities hear information about particular legislative bills without hearing the full scope of what the legislation means. We must be well-read in upcoming legislative conferences and committees and be able to offer an educator’s perspective if we are asked. We must be able to show the consequences of actions taken outside of the control of teachers. When decisions are made legislatively or at the state level that impact curriculum, assessment, accommodations, etc, we have an obligation to help decision makers understand what the policies look like in practice in a ‘real classroom’. We must also be a voice for our students when they cannot speak for themselves. During my last year of teaching in a neighboring state, students in my ELA classroom spent almost 30 days in assessments alone, not counting other subject areas. School-wide formatives, district formatives, practice assessments, state assessments, and other assessments required for particular functions removed 6 weeks of instruction from my instructional calendar. Assessment can be a powerful tool to determine where students are and what growth has been made, but at what cost? My students needed a voice of reason to help them speak their concerns in a way that was constructive and in a delivery that would be heard by others.

But most importantly, we must participate in the advocacy work because we are the experts. We must OWN our expertise and refer to ourselves as experts in literacy (or English Language Arts, or in 3rd grade curriculum, etc). In most every instance in our lives, we are the expert at the meeting. We are the expert in education at our Thanksgiving meals and at the football tailgates. More often than not, people are looking to each of us for an opinion on educational issues we face. Who needs to hear YOUR voice? There is power in numbers. When the Teacher Walkout happened, it was because a few brave teachers finally stood up and spoke out. Other teachers need to hear our celebrations and concerns, if only to build our community and learn from one another. Additionally, administrators and school board members who are directly tied to educational decision-making should be listening to the teacher point-of-view. When committees are formed and stakeholder groups are initiated in your districts, are teacher representatives invited to participate? Are teachers consulted by school board members before voting on critical motions? Do your administrators seek the opinions of more than one or two teachers before making decisions? The people that need to hear our voices the most are OUR STUDENTS. They need to hear each of us speaking on their behalf, for their best interests and for their livelihoods. They need to know they have an ally, but they also need to know why decisions are being made and how they are made. Engaging students in critical discourse is an important life skill that we must each model and provide opportunities to practice within our classrooms. How to Share Your Voice: Elevator Speeches One of my greatest mentors and one of the best teachers I know, Claudia Swisher, introduced me to the concept of Elevator Speeches for teacher advocacy. The concept of an Elevator Speech is to have a practiced speech (memorized) that you could give to anyone who would join you on an elevator ride, before the elevator arrives at its destination (brief, concise). The steps are fairly simple: 1) Identify an issue that speaks to your heart. If you are passionate about it, it will likely be a more powerful delivery. Think about what stories you can tell, what worries you the most, or what you realistically want to see changed in your classroom or school. 2) Identify your goal. Do you want the person you are speaking with to support schools with their vote? With their funding? With their attendance at events? 3) Explain what you do, specifically, remembering to identify yourself as an EXPERT. More than saying “I teach 8th grade at Skyview Junior High”, you could say “I teach 150 beautifully diverse 13-year-olds in downtown Oklahoma City”. 4) Communicate your proposition through a classroom story. Our brain receptors fire differently when presented information in narrative form. 5) Engage the listener with an open-ended question. 6) Keep the Elevator Speech to less than one minute.

Here is an example: Hello Congressman Wyatt, my name is Shelbie Witte and I am an expert in the teaching of the English Language Arts, working with a talented group of writers and readers in rural NW Oklahoma. Our classroom is in critical need of books. What kind of books do you read, Congressman Wyatt? Did you have a library in the school you attended? Well, unfortunately, our district lost so much funding this year that we are now without a librarian and our library is being dismantled to make room for new classrooms. Can you think of some ways to help us Congressman? What should we tell our students and parents? From the example above, I’ve decided I’m most passionate about access to books and providing funding for each school to have access to libraries and a librarian. If I’m asked a follow up question by the legislator, I can follow up with even more personal stories because I’ve picked a topic I’m passionate about. Additionally, the same Elevator Speech could be revised for use with a potential school donor or a school board member. In this Advocacy for Education series, I hope to share with you more examples of ways to share your Teacher Voice. Give the Elevator Speech a try and reach out and let me know your results. I’d love to hear from you, shelbie.witte@okstate.edu.

I would like to thank Dr. Shelbie Witte for sharing her expertise with readers of The Oklahoma Reader. She will continue with Part II in the Spring 2019 edition. Julie Collins, Policy and Advocacy Column Editor

Shelbie Witte is the Chuck and Kim Watson Endowed Chair in Education and Professor of Adolescent Literacy and English Education at Oklahoma State University. She also serves as the director of the Oklahoma State University Writing Project and the founding director of the Initiative for 21st Century Literacies Research.

Tech Talk: Making the Most of Technology in Your Classroom Shelley Martin-Young Integrating technology into your classroom can be a daunting task. It seems that every day there is some new technology being touted as the answer for all of your classroom needs. In this issue of The Oklahoma Reader, I will focus on writing tools. I will give tips for making the most of technology in your classroom and give practical applications of technology that you can use today. Let's face it, the nature of writing pedagogy has shifted over the past few years as many teachers attempt to include technology into their writing instruction. Knowing when to incorporate technology and how to choose which technology to use can be overwhelming; however, including technology is necessary. Aside from engaging students in the writing process, digital writing skills are critical to "college and career readiness," states Eidman-Aadahl from the University of California, Berkley. Incorporating these new modes of expression will help to engage your students in the writing process in fun and productive ways. Using technology just for word processing might be an easy way to get started, but there are websites and iPad apps that take that word processing a step farther and include ways for your students to be more creative. One way to get students writing is through the use of picture prompts. My favorite website to jumpstart the writing process is storybird.com. Storybird, free to teachers, contains artwork from illustrators and animators around the world. These photographs can be used as prompts for writing or for students to use to illustrate stories they have already written. Storybird is useful for all grades, having the capabilities to write picture books, novels, and poetry. Teachers can create a class in Storybird, make assignments, give feedback to their writers, and build a class library. There is a fee to print the stories, but sharing them digitally is always free. Students can also read the hundreds of stories already written using Storybird. Below is the cover and first page of a student's work.

Poetry writing with storybird is as easy as dragging words onto a picture as illustrated below.

Three applications (apps) that I have found helpful with the writing process are Puppet Pals, Sock Puppets, and ChatterPix. Puppet Pals is an app that turns student writing into cartoon movies. The students can create their own or use provided templates. There is a basic edition that is free, but there are many options available that can be purchased as add-ons. To use Puppet Pals, students choose characters (up to eight) and backgrounds to create scenes. They also record their own voice to bring their characters to life creating their own puppet show. Some backgrounds and characters available include fairytales, wild west, space, and school. Students also have the capability of drawing and uploading their own characters and backgrounds or using pictures from the camera roll. Teaching students the importance of dialogue is easy to do with Puppet Pals, giving voice to a wide variety of characters. My favorite add-on is the historical characters. This helps bring history to life as students are able to pick characters such as Martin Luther King, Abraham Lincoln, and Benjamin Franklin. Here is a link to some lesson plans for using Puppet Pals in your classroom. To see a tutorial of Puppet Pals click here. Puppet Pals is available in the App Store and works on iPads and iPhones. Sock Puppets is another app that is very similar to Puppet Pals. Sock Puppets are just what the name says, sock puppets. There are a variety of sock puppet characters to choose from along with several different backgrounds. The free version allows students 30 seconds of recording time. While 30 seconds sounds like a short amount of time, this app is great for your beginning writers. I have also used Puppet Pals to retell a story, read a poem, or report on a famous person. It is also fun to have students work in pairs to give different voices to the different characters. In-app purchases add more characters, backgrounds, and recording time to stories. Sock puppets can be shared on a classroom Facebook page and also on Youtube. Click here for a Sock Puppet tutorial. Sock Puppet is available in the App Store and works on iPads and iPhones.

The final application that I will be discussing is ChatterPix. ChatterPix is an app that I have used with students from kindergarten through college. It is a fun app that gives any photo you have a "voice." You simply draw a line where you want the mouth to be and then have students record themselves. This is a great tool to use to teach point of view, as I often have the students record the story from the point of view of whatever object is in their picture. ChatterPix is also wonderful to use in science or social studies allowing writing to cross content areas. For example, if you are studying animals, students can use a picture of the animal they are researching, draw a mouth on it, and then use their voice to tell facts about that animal. Here is an example about tigers. Students can also draw their own animal in its habitat to use for the report. Here is an example of this with a polar bear. ChatterPix is also a fun way to introduce students to each other at the beginning of the year. Have students upload pictures of themselves and then tell their story. Other creative ways

to use ChatterPix would be to have students create biographies of famous people and then have their pictures come to life by simply adding a mouth. Students could study a state and actually have the state come to life with ChatterPix. Here is an example of a ChatterPix about the Great Pyramid. In math class, upload pictures of shapes, and use them to teach your students geometry. The possibilities with this app are endless. ChatterPix is available for use with iPhones and iPads.

While the thought of implementing technology into your writing plans can be overwhelming, this list of websites and apps is a great place to begin your technology journey. In the next issue of The Oklahoma Reader, I will share my favorite presentation and publication tools.

Shelley Martin-Young Oklahoma State University, Doctoral Candidate Graduate Teaching Assistant ~ Teaching Language Arts

RESEARCH SUMMARY Linda McElroy, Ph.D., Column Editor “Critical Literacy”: What Does It Mean? How are we doing teaching our students about critical literacy in a digital world ? Editor’s Note: This column examines “critical literacy” from several perspectives and across a wide range of grade levels of students. The featured research is: Forzani, E. (2018). How Well Can Students Evaluate Online Science Information: Contributions of Prior Knowledge, Gender, Socioeconomic Status, and Offline Reading Ability. Reading Research Quarterly, 53(4), pp. 385-390. The world of literacy is increasingly exciting, with new sources of information and with choices for readers’ responses expanding every day. In this exciting context, teachers have expanding responsibilities as we interact with our students. We still need to help our students learn basic literacy skills. In addition, we must help our students learn to analyze the texts they read, especially when they are selecting digital texts from varied sources. This process of analyzing the texts is often called “critical literacy.” The International Literacy Association’s Literacy Glossary provides a comprehensive list of definitions of literacy related terms. The International Literacy Association (ILA) defines “critical literacy” as “the ability to actively read texts in a manner that promotes a deeper understanding of socially constructed concepts such as power, inequality, and injustice in human relationships.” When the texts are digital ones, we need to add the layer of “critical media literacy,” which ILA defines as “an educational response that expands the notion of literacy to include different forms of mass communication, popular culture, and new relationships between media and audiences, information, and power.” This column will explore the process of critical literacy through a series of articles. In a brief review of the first article, we will find an explanation of a multi-year study that includes critical literacy, along with other factors. The second one (the main article for this column) focuses on one of the components of the larger study, as it examines how students evaluate online information. Finally, references will be provided for ideas to help students learn more effective ways to analyze their sources of information. The first article is “The New Literacies of Online Research and Comprehension: Rethinking the Reading Achievement Gap,” authored by one of the pioneers in New Literacies, Donald Leu, and a group of his colleagues from the University of Connecticut, and published in Reading Research Quarterly (RRQ) in 2014.

This multi-year study with seventh grade students examined whether there is an achievement gap for online reading ability based on income inequality. The students completed two performance-based Online Research and Comprehension Assessments (ORCAs), including some of the new social practices associated with online technologies. Assessments in this study focused on (a) locating online information, (b) critically evaluating online information; (c) synthesizing the online information, and (d) communicating the information. The authors defined the second component of their research, which was “reading to critically evaluate online information,” with these questions: 1. Was the student able to correctly identify the author/creator of the focal website? 2. Was the student able to provide accurate detail about the author’s level of expertise? 3. Was the student able to provide accurate information about the effectiveness of the author’s use of evidence for arguments? 4. Was the student able to provide a reasonable evaluation and logical explanation of the focal website’s reliability? The second author of this first study, Elena Forzani, received the ILA Outstanding Dissertation Award for a follow-up study described in the focus article: “How Well Can Students Evaluate Online Science Information: Contributions of Prior Knowledge, Gender, Socioeconomic Status, and Offline Reading Ability” which was published in RRQ in 2018. This study was conducted with seventh-grade students to examine how well they evaluated the credibility of online science texts. The researcher in this study defined “credibility evaluation” as a process including three subordinate tiers: Knowledge-claim credibility—the extent to which an author’s claims are consistent with the knowledge the reader believes to be true Source credibility—the extent to which the source of the information (author, publisher, etc.) is credible. Context credibility—the extent to which the context in which the information is presented is credible. There were 1,434 seventh-grade participants in two states who were involved in a study to develop and validate the Online Research and Comprehension Assessments (ORCAs). Each student completed one of four versions of texts in a science domain (heart or eye health), which had items to assess students’ competency in four categories: Locating, Synthesizing, Communicating, and Evaluating. The students interacted with the items through a virtual environment with avatars, email, and a social network. In addition to completing the ORCA tasks, each student completed a 10-item multiple-choice prior knowledge assessment, identified their gender, and completed an offline reading measure. The schools provided information about socio-economic status, based on free and reduced lunch data. The study investigated two research questions: 1. To what extent can seventh grade students evaluate the credibility of information during an online research and comprehension task in science that also includes locating, synthesizing, and communicating information? 2. To what extent do prior knowledge, gender, socioeconomic status and offline reading ability contribute to students’ ability to evaluate information credibility. during an online research and comprehension task in science?

For research question 1, results showed these students were not especially skilled in Evaluating, or in Locating, Synthesizing, or Communicating. The scores were significantly lower on Evaluate than on Locating or Synthesizing. However, the lowest scores were on Communicate. Evaluate tasks asked the students to identify the author, evaluate the author’s expertise, evaluate the author’s point of view, and evaluate the overall credibility of the webpage. Only 4% of the students were correct on all the Evaluate items. Most students (82.7%) identified the author, 22.5% evaluated author expertise, 31% evaluated author point of view, and only 15% evaluated overall webpage credibility. For research question 2, each skill area (Locate, Synthesize, and Communicate) contributed a small but unique amount of variance to Evaluate. The article provides complete details about these results. There was a small but significant relation between prior knowledge and Evaluate. On average, girls performed significantly better on Evaluate than boys. There was a statistically significant, but small, relation between offline reading ability and Evaluate, supporting the idea that online and offline reading share commonalities but are not the same. The author of the articles suggests three implications from the research: 1. Because the task to Evaluate these online resources was so difficult for these participants, students may benefit if teachers start to teach students how to evaluate texts while they are still young. 2. The results indicate that students with stronger prior knowledge and with stronger offline reading ability performed better on the Evaluate tasks. Girls in this study performed better than boys. These results remind us of the need to differentiate instruction. 3. While Evaluate was a unique skill, it was related to the skills of Locate, Synthesize, and Communicate. Instead of measuring evaluation in isolation, it may be better to measure it with related skills. Editor’s Comments: The concept of critical literacy is both intriguing and challenging for us as teachers. Ideas for supporting children’s consideration of credibility and diverse perspectives are found in numerous articles in ILA journals. We must prepare our students for the analytical ways of thinking that critical literacy will require. We can start as we read aloud, even to young children, and use think-alouds to model concepts such as “power, inequality, and injustice in human relationships (“critical literacy” in the ILA Glossary).” It could be as simple as encouraging children to think about how a main character is feeling, then shifting our perspective to consider how another character is feeling. These experiences can help prepare children for participation in “Critical Book Clubs” as described in an article in The Reading Teacher (Jocius & Shealy, 2017). As we scaffold our students’ ability to evaluate both narrative and informational texts, they will be better prepared to Locate and Synthesize information, as well as to consider the credibility of authors and information.

Even beyond the level of seventh-grade texts as described in the focus article for this column, advanced readers will benefit from teachers’ modeling of strategies to support understandings of complex texts. Examples of strategies with teenage students who were learning to analyze news reports are given in an article from The Journal of Adolescent and Adult Literacy (Poulus, 2018). The title of this article captures the success we aim for: Critical Literacy for Culturally Diverse Teenagers: “I’ve Learned Something That is Actually Useful.” Yes! We need to pursue instruction that will make a difference! ILA defined our tasks well in their Position Statement on New Literacies and 21 st Century Technologies: “We must assist students to become critical consumers and informed creators of information in these new online contexts.” We must provide “instruction in how to critically evaluate the relevancy, accuracy, reliability, and perspective of information created for a range of purposes and audiences.”

Dr. Linda McElroy is a Professor at the University of Science and Arts of Oklahoma. She previously taught in Oklahoma schools as a classroom teacher and reading specialist.

References Focus Article Forzani, E. (2018). How Well Can Students Evaluate Online Science Information: Contributions of Prior Knowledge, Gender, Socioeconomic Status, and Offline Reading Ability. Reading Research Quarterly, 53(4), pp. 385-390. Supporting References Jocius, R. & Shealy, S. (2017) Critical Book Clubs: Reimagining Literature Reading and Response. The Reading Teacher, 71(6), pp. 691-702. Leu, D., Forzani, E., Rhoads, C., Maykel, C., Kennedy, C., & Timbrell, N. (2014). The New Literacies of Online Research and Comprehension: Rethinking the Reading Achievement Gap. Reading Research Quarterly, 50(1), pp. 37-59. Poulus, D. (2018). Critical Literacy for Culturally Diverse Teenagers: “I’ve Learned Something That is Actually Useful”. Journal of Adolescent and Adult Literacy, 62(3), pp. 271-280.

Linda McElroy OKLA State President Hello Oklahoma Literacy Association, The OKLA Board of Directors and I are excited about the 2018-2019 year for our organization! We have completed the transition from the Oklahoma reading Association to the Oklahoma Literacy Association (OKLA) in partnership with the International Literacy Association (ILA). Thanks to Vickie Hinkle, our ILA Coordinator, for helping us make the transition with ILA. Watch for updates on our Facebook page and on our website (www.oklahomareadingassociation.org). You will notice new branding and an entirely new website soon. Sheri Vasinda has taken lead in developing our new website. The transition is taking time and effort, and I appreciate support from our Board members and from ILA. Please bear with us as we make changes in all of our social media formats. Thanks to Connie Wise, Woodward Public Schools, for serving as our Media Chair. Watch for news and ideas from Sheri, Connie, and others. Check back for updates! We have had a busy year. The summer included an online book club, facilitated by Sheri Vasinda and her graduate students at OSU. This fall, we are enjoying a series of Author Chats with authors of articles from The Oklahoma Reader, our OKLA journal. Watch our Facebook page for invitations to join our upcoming activities. Our fall Leadership Conference and Council Kickoff was held at Oklahoma City University. We enjoyed meeting with council leaders and members and hearing ideas from council activities. We also enjoyed a presentation from Kyle and Kenneth Brown about the Redbud Read-Aloud Awards that are available this year. The Redbud Read-Aloud and the Sequoyah Awards provide support in encouraging our students to enjoy great books. Save the date for our upcoming state conference. It will be held on Saturday, April 6, 2019, on the campus of Oklahoma State University in Tulsa. We are looking forward to hearing from our keynote speaker, Dr. Doug Fisher, great breakout sessions and speakers, meeting with exhibitors, and a chance to see all of you! Watch for announcements about calls for session proposals. Please consider sharing some of your ideas with the rest of us! Please join me in continuing to encourage students with the slogan " We are READERS!" Our role as reading teachers is to "Create READERS!" not simply teach children how to read. We need to help our students (no matter their ages) to develop self-efficacy and a belief about themselves of "I can do this!"

Take time to read something just because you want to!

Linda McElroy OKLA State President University of Science and Arts of Oklahoma lmcelroy@usao.edu

Authors are requested to submit only unpublished articles not under review by any other publication. A manuscript should be typed, double spaced, not right justified, not hyphenated, and should follow APA, 6th Edition guidelines (Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association). Tables and graphs should be used only when absolutely necessary. Include a cover page giving the article title, professional affiliation, complete address, e-mail and phone number of the author(s). Special sections have specific requirements that are described below. The editors reserve the right to revise and/or edit all copies.

CALL FOR PROPOSALS FOR THE OKLAHOMA READER

The Oklahoma Reader welcomes manuscripts that support the growth and development of classroom teachers, reading specialists, and other literacy professionals throughout their careers. Manuscripts should successfully translate literacy research into practice through concrete strategies and techniques. Considering that the main audience of The Oklahoma Reader consists of PreK-12 teachers, manuscripts that offer practical ideas for successful literacy instruction are encouraged and prioritized. Manuscripts should be limited to 4000 words including tables, figures, and reference(s). Submit the manuscript electronically as a Word document attached to an e-mail message addressed to oklahomareader@gmail.com. Manuscripts will be reviewed anonymously by three members of The Oklahoma Reader Editorial Advisory Board. Manuscripts are evaluated on the basis of clarity, interest, organization, content, and style. If accepted, revisions may be requested. Manuscripts must be original work which has not been previously published nor is undergoing simultaneous review in another journal. The Oklahoma Reader also seeks submissions dealing with instructional practices (teacher-to-teacher), and classroom research (teacher research). These are described as follows. All submissions should be submitted electronically as a Word document attached to an email message addressed to oklahomareader@gmail.com. Teacher to Teacher: Submit descriptions of teaching activities that have helped students learn an essential literacy skill, concept, strategy, or attitude. Submissions should be no longer than 1500 words and align with the followingÂ format: Title (if adapting from another source, cite reference and provide a bibliography Purpose of Activity, including the literacy skill, concept, strategy, or attitude the students will learn Description of activity with examples, questions, responses. Please provide enough detail so someone can implement the activity. How activity was evaluated to know if purpose was achieved. Teacher Research: Submit manuscripts that describe research or inquiry conducted in classrooms. Submissions should be 1000-2000 words and align with the following format: Description of the question or issue guiding the research/inquiry, including a short review of pertinent literature. Description of who participated in the study, what the sources of data were, how the data were gathered and examined. Description of the findings and conclusion from the research/inquiry. Title, author, publisher of the resource. Short description of the resource. Critical review of the resource including strengths and weaknesses. Short discussion of how the resource might be useful to a teacher.Â

oklahomareader@gmail.com

The Oklahoma Reading Association (ORA) Is now The Oklahoma Literacy Association (OKLA)! Membership in the Oklahoma Literacy Association gives all interested in literacy education the opportunity to develop and support literacy initiatives and activities at the international, national, state, and local levels. Opportunities to participate in activities that support quality professional development, partnerships with other agencies advocating for literacy, research, as well as the promotion of quality instruction, materials, and policies are all extended and enriched through membership in OKLA. We invite you to become a member of the Oklahoma Literacy Association if you are not yet a member! Membership information can be found here.

THE OKLAHOMA READER A JOURNAL OF THE OKLAHOMA LITERACY ASSOCIATION, AN AFFILIATE OF THE INTERNATIONAL LITERACY ASSOCIATION

EDITORS

ASSISTANT EDITOR EDITORIAL REVIEW BOARD

Donita Shaw Julie Collins Shelley Martin-Young

Oklahoma State University University of Central Oklahoma Oklahoma State University

Abby Weyen

Oklahoma State University

Tammi Davis Rebecca Marie Farley Tracy Hunt Sylvia Hurst Linda McElroy Sharon Morgan Claudia Otto Brian Thompson Liz Willner Jodi Wolf Debby Yarbrough

Oklahoma State University Oklahoma Baptist University Oklahoma City Public Schools University of Central Oklahoma Univ. of Science and Arts of Oklahoma Oklahoma State Dept. of Education Oklahoma State University Sand Springs Public Schools Oklahoma City University Edmond Public Schools Woodward Public Schools

Oklahoma Reading Association Officers President

Linda McElroy

Univ. of Science and Arts of Oklahoma

President Elect

Sheri Vasinda

Oklahoma State University

Vice President

Sylvia Hurst

University of Central Oklahoma

Secretary

Rebecca Marie Farley

Oklahoma Baptist University

Treasurer

Debby Yarbrough

Woodward Public Schools

Past President

Liz Willner

Oklahoma City University

ILA Coordinator

Vickie Hinkle

MidAmerica Christian University